The streaming world is bringing back a very old type of movie

Photo by Alexander Andrews on Unsplash

Hollywood is bringing back the serial film.

So now I’m sure you’re wondering — what are serial films?

The serial film is something of a forgotten form, beginning in the 20th century as a pulp format.

Adventure, sci-fi, fantasy — serial films tended to be the stuff of the fantastic.

Zorro, the Lone Ranger, Captain Marvel, Flash Gordon — this was a world of the heroic.

These really mirrored the pulp publications of the time that churned out half-baked plots with exciting premises.

Despite the fact their pulpy storytelling has not exactly established them as enduring classics — you’ve encountered the legacy of serial films in a lot of ways already — namely, in the works of George Lucas, who is said to have been inspired by these adventure shorts for Star Wars and Indiana Jones.

Just think — high-flying adventures either on a galactic scale or in exotic…